The TRUTH about Sports

Well, it’s a rematch from a few years back and everyone’s been sucking Eli Manning’s you know what since he’s won all his games on the road and since he beat Tom Brady and his Pats in the regular season and it the previous Superbowl. Before I tell you who I know is going to win, I want to put to rest one issue. That being whether or not Eli has passed Peyton Manning on who the better quarterback is. Let me tell you something, Peyton is hands down the best quarterback in the family. If Peyton Manning had the defense that Eli Manning had, Peyton would have won 4 Superbowls. Don’t come at me with Dwight Freeney. The Giants have had the best front 4 in the league for at least 4 years. They have a running game which Peyton never had. OK, time to move on to the big game. Picking this one is easy. The rule is that if you beat a team in the regular season, you lose to them in the playoffs. Hence, the Pats will take this. Look for G-men to be overconfident and get lit up early by Tom and his merry band of men. I know that Pats have a worse defense but their running game has picked up recently and we all know that Tom Brady is, well, Tom Brady. Not that much insight in this article but I’m telling you, take the Pats. Watch the game at home or even head out to the game. Surprisingly enough, it’s not sold out.

I will preface this article by saying that I’m a Kansas City Chief fan. With that said, how the heck to the Green Bay Packers lose to the Chiefs? 13-1 Packers against 6-8 Chiefs? Packers with pretty much all their starters against the Chiefs with a quarterback that just joined the team 2 weeks ago? I don’t understand. The Packers have been destroying most teams every week. They had gone through the tough part of their schedule and had one away game left on their schedule, at Arrowhead. Trap game? Not sure if you can call it that. I can call it playing down to the level of your competition. A lot of dropped balls by the WR corp. Having watched sports for many, many moons, I’ve learned that no matter who you are playing, if you enter the 4th quarter with a close game when you should be up by a lot, all bets are off. Pride kicks in? Ask the Trojans a few years ago when the Bruins ruined their National title hopes. This was going to be a perfect season for the Packers, capped off by a Superbowl victory. Hasn’t been done since those wretched Dolphins. Now we have to hear about how Mercury Morris and his cronies popped a bottle of champagne. Tom Brady and his bunch could’ve done it a few years ago but Eli and company took him down. Great win for the Chiefs though. Not sure why they can’t play like this every week? The problem with this win is that it will probably get interim coach Romeo Cronell the job, which is not what the Chiefs need. Oh well, it is nice to play spoiler though.

This is a clash of the titans… Battle for first place in the AFC and what might ultimately be the breaking point for home filed throughout the playoffs. It seems like it was just yesterday when the Steelers were getting their asses handed to them by the Ravens in the home opener. Well, fast forward to today and the Steelers have gone 4-1. Sure their wins have come against Seattle, Indy, Jacksonville, Tennessee, and Arizona, but a win’s a win. This week against the Pats will be the real test. The Steelers aren’t the same team they used to be. Their defense is banged up and the only test they’ve had this year was against Baltimore in week 1. Luckily for them, the Patriots defense is just as shitty, especially their secondary. But you can never count out the dynamic duo of Tom Brady and Wes Welker. Throw in the Hernandez and Gronkowski tight end combo and you have a passing offense that’s #1 in the league. If I had to bet on the game, I’d take the Steelers and the points. That’s right, the Steelers are dogs in their own house. But I’m taking them only because they’re at home. If this game was in Foxborough, the Pats would be favored by at least a TD.

Alright, enough is enough. I know that Chad Johnson/Ochocinco is a diva. He’s probably on the downside of his career and will never put up big numbers like he did in his early days with the Bengals. But give the kid a break. His tweet of being in awe after “seeing” Tom Brady put up gaudy numbers over the weekend isn’t as bad as everyone is making it to be. Worst critic has been ex-Patriot now analyst Teddy Bruschi for ripping Chad. Sometimes, it seems that these announcers/ex-players miss being in the limelight and will do/say anything to get back into it. I’m not saying that Chad is innocent, but geez. Nobody on the Patriots has criticized him since the day he signed with them. I’m sure Ocho expected to get more than 1 reception, especially in a game where his QB threw for over 500 yards. Unfortunately, the Pats have a tough schedule this year with games against the Jets, Philly, San Diego, and Pittsburgh. I actually hope that Chad has a similar type season as Randy Moss did his first year with the Pats. Don’t think it will happen but who knows? At the very least, give the guy a chance to be part of the team.

And with the 8th overall pick of the NFL draft, the Tennessee Titans select…. a quarterback? 4 years after selecting Vince Young from Texas, the Tennessee Titans and owner Bud Adams have decided to end the VY experiment. The rift between the coach and the player has been lingering for years only to come to a climax this season, leading to the Titans’ losing 8 of their last 9. I’m glad someone finally took the coach’s side over the diva players’. NFL and most modern day athletes are so spoiled and used to getting their own way that when something like this happens, everyone is so shocked. This is how it used to be, when sports was real. Coaches these days have to walk on eggshells when they criticize their star/franchise players. Jeff Fisher has been coaching this team for 16 years or so. If you think there’s another qualified coach out their, good luck finding one. The Titans can easily draft a scrambling quarterback, they’re a dime a dozen in college. I don’t think VY every played up to his potential. Then again, I do believe that his type of quarterbacks, while successful in the short term, can never win you a Superbowl. Look at Vick and McNabb. It’s no coincidence all the winning Superbowl quarterbacks have been pocket passers… Brady, Manning, Brees. I’m sure there will be some suitors for Vince Young. Half the league is in need of a quarterback. As for the Titans, they’re 1 QB and 1 WR away from making a deep run in the playoffs. They have the best runnign back in the game in Chris Johnson, and like most RB careers go, he’s got about 2 more years of playing at this level. The next move the Titans have to make is cutting Randy Moss. Look how it helped the New England Patriots. I love Moss but he reeks of clubhouse cancer. You can’t have selfish guys like that on a team, especially without a true team captain to put him in place. It’s going to be an interesting offseason…wait a minute, don’t the playoffs start this weekend?

I don’t know what pleases me more, Brett Favre throwing pick after pick or the demise of the San Diego Chargers. Today, the Chargers almost did the unthinkable…turn their season around. Down 23-6 in the fourth quarter, they scored a touchdown, recovered an onside kick, scored again, got the ball back and then missed a 50+ yard field goal to send the game into overtime. It seems like they always play well in the fourth quarter. This game shouldn’t have been that close in the first play. The Chargers got lucky by recovering the onside kick. The Pats weren’t ready for it and got caught napping. Instead of newly acquired kicker Kris Brown kicking a 45 yard field goal, they got nailed with a false start which pushed them back 5 yards. The kick, well it went off the post. But I can’t blame the kicker. The Chargers’ offense was flowing, finally, in the 4th quarter. Their last drive started at New England 48. They had 3 timeouts left. And instead of marching and trying to score a TD, they only got one first down and set their kicker up for a sure-fire miss. I hate the Chargers. They’re a bunch of pre-madonnas. They deserve to be at the bottom of the AFC West. This football season’s been full of surprises, like the Browns pounding the Saints in New Orleans or the Oakland Raiders having a better records than the Minnesota Vikings. Throughout all this turmoil, we can always count on the San Diego Chargers choking. And if you enjoyed it this week, you’re gonna love it when the Tennessee Titans come into town next week to lay one on the Chargers. Ready to witness the best running back in the league, Chris Johsnon, run wild on them .

Randy Moss was traded from the New England Patriots to the Minnesota Vikings. GREAT trade for the Vikings. With Sidney Rice out, the Vikings were struggling with their passing game. We all know Brett Favre has had a huge crush on Randy. Now he has him. Now he has to get the ball to him or else face the same wrath that Daunte Culpepper, Tom Brady and Jamarcus Russell felt when they didn’t get the ball to him. Make no mistake that Randy Moss is a diva. But he will make the Vikings INSTANT superbowl favorites in the NFC. Brett Favre, Randy Moss, Adrian Peterson… WOW!

As for the New England Patriots, a 3rd round pick? They could’ve gotten more but don’t think that this wasn’t done for a purpose. Belichek traded Moss just in time for the Vikings’ Monday Night showdown with the Jets. He basically traded Moss for a Jets loss. His offense will suffer though. The Pats dismal running game will suffer, as will Wes Welkers’ numbers. Moss is one of the players you have to scheme your defense around. Moss was too big for the Pats and this move is gonna hurt them in the long run. Moss still has some years left in him and if I was Tom Brady, I’d be pissed. I don’t want to say they’re throwing the towel in but after trading away pass-rusher deluxe Richard Seymour last year, I’m not sure where this organization is headed.

Enough about the Jets… So they had a good year last year… They exceeded everyone’s expectations. You know what that means? That means that everyone expected them to suck and they made the playoffs. Now everyone’s talking about who’s town is it, the Jets’ or the Giants’? Let’s see, the Jets let the league leader in rushing yards walk away (Thomas Jones) and signed a has been in Ladanian Tomlinson. They have a rookie quarterback who is sure to hit the sophmore wall. Their #1 receiver Braylon Edwards is the epitamy of a pre-madonna. I do like their rookie runningback Shonne Green though. On defense, the Darrelle Revis and newliy acquired Antonio Cromartie might possible be the sickest cornerback combo since Deion Sanders and well, Deion Sanders. On the other hand, we have the NY Giants. Superbowl Champs from a few years ago. They still have Eli at the helm and Bradshaw/Jacobs combo at runningback. Their d-line is probably one of the top in the league with Justin Tuck and Osi Uminyiora. They could use some help in their secondary and lack any threats at WR. The only reason why the Jets get more love is ’cause they play in the crappy AFC East where they face the Dolphins and Bills 4x a year where the Giants have to play Dallas, Philly and even Wasington. Oh well, wise man once told me “you’re only as good as your last game.” I wouldn’t hold my breath with either of these teams next year, Minnesota and New Orleans still own the NFC and in the AFC, I’ll still put my money on the Colts and Brady and Co. I’ll give it to the Jets though, they do have a more promising future. The Plaxico fiasco in NY is still haunting the Giants.

OK, OK, so I didn’t come through for you guys last week. NO, actually you know what, the Patriots didn’t come through for you guys last week. Yeah, Bill Belichik didn’t come for through for us. Tom Brady failed us again. Yeah, so did Giselle Bunchin…mmmm. Giselle… Me, well, I’m 6-4 on the season, still not too shabby, still on the plus. Been doing a lot of sould searching this past week. A lot of wondering what went wrong in my life, where I went wrong. But that’s a different article for a different blog. Ready for this week’s pick/lock, here goes nothing… Minnesota Vikings at the Jacksonville Jaguars -2. Take the Jags and the points. The Vikes are in the thick of a playoff spot with a WHOPPING 5-5 record. The Jags on the other hand, are already playing for next year. So why would you take the Jags you ask? Don’t be fooled. 5 of 6 of the Jags’ losses are by 7 points or less. These guys just have problems finishing games. The Jags are stacked with talent. Throw in the fact that this is a home game and you got yourself a “LOCK of the Week.”

What a turn of events!!! I’ll get right to it: opening game of the season, the New England Patriots hosting the Kansas City Chiefs, 1st quarter, no score, Tom Brady steps up to make a throw to Randy Moss when Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard, already on the ground, lunges forward at Brady’s knee; the result, torn ACL, out of the season (Brady that is). This team just went from Superbowl favorites to “let’s hope we make the playoffs.” WOW!!! I don’t know what else there is to say. Sure they still beat the Chiefs, which actually shows how pathetic my Chiefs are, but is backup starter Matt Cassel the answer for the Pats? Cassel hasn’t started a game since he was in high school, though he did a decent job managing the game Sunday. Now I wanna see the “genius” Bill Belichik work some of his magic. For years, I’ve been hearing how he’s the best coach in the league. Let’s see what he’s gonna whip up for the rest of the season. Is that Daunte Culpepper’s phone I hear ringing? Don’t forget, in 2004 Culpepper threw for 39 tds, with a third of those going to Moss. Maybe Culpepper’s a stretch, but I’m not sure Cassel can handle this. Looks like the race in the AFC is wide open, ready for the pickin’s. I know there’s one team that’s smiling right now. Ummm, Steelers/Colts, please step up and take your spot at the head of the class.